I’ve helped many founders prepare for their first round of#funding, and I’m still surprised about the wrong believes some of them have.
Here are a few common ones and what should be done instead:
⏱️You’re not going to raise $500k in 2 weeks → think 3 to 6 months.
🪜Or raise $500k without revenues → go for a $200K milestone first.
📌 Pitch decks have to be built a certain way → use templates.
🔃 Investors don’t finance your expenses, they finance their return on investment → tell them what you’ll achieve with their money.
💯Your pitch story should be about numbers → put them on all slides.
🧑Your deck shouldn’t have Statista screenshots → only unique, compiled, hard earned user interview findings.
🪡 If not SaaS, you aren’t for 90% of VCs → nail it with niche VCs then.
👋 Angels don’t fund founders they don’t know → get intros or move on.
🪴Incubators are often your 1st available checks → don’t skip them.
🔢 Your numbers are what matters to VCs → know your KPIs by heart.
🎤 You should be able to pitch your company in 5 minutes. That’s 30 seconds per slide → and it takes a lot of training to get there.
Unless you’re a successfully exited founder or come from a great family, fundraising is ice hard and relies on a well thought out process.
If you’re looking to raise for the first time, I’m happy to help! Feel free to reach out!